Longtime Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase revealed to IGN that Star Wars was a big influence on the RPG franchise.

When speaking with IGN's Michael Peyton at the Lucca Comics & Games Festival 2026, Kitase was asked how he felt about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being heavily influenced by Final Fantasy. He admitted that he was really happy to see a game that was inspired by Square's RPG franchise have so much success, and that he himself is heavily inspired by other entertainment behemoths, too — namely Star Wars.

"To be honest, I know the game," Kitase said of Expedition 33. "I spoke with the creators and I'm actually very happy about the fact that they have been so inspired by Final Fantasy and they created a new game from that. And also, I was inspired by movies and in particular by Star Wars when I was young.

"I took inspiration from many things I was interested in when I was younger, and I used that inspiration to create my games. I think it's beautiful that there's this kind of cycle where we inspire each other and we take things from each other's games. I think it's something beautiful, and it should be like that."

The producer noted that he has always been careful not to lift directly from Star Wars, fearing that it would be too obvious and resemble more of a copy than anything else. However, he did point to a few things in his own work that were born from his love of the sci-fi series. He noted that Final Fantasy 7 characters Wedge and Biggs are the most overt inspirations, since they are named after characters from Star Wars' rebellion.

On a slightly more subtle note, he also noted that Blitzball from Final Fantasy 10 was inspired by Podracing from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

"One more that came to my mind is from Final Fantasy X, where I had to create [Blitzball] for the game inside the fantasy setting. And I used an idea from Star Wars Episode 1 where there's this [pod] race and the fact of using sport inside a fantasy context, I took this idea directly from Star Wars."

The highly-awaited conclusion to the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, is set to release on April 8, 2027.